State urged to scale back Albany port oil shipments

Advocacy group's letter also cites peril from heating project

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An advocacy group wants the state to end its permission for increased crude oil shipments at the Port of Albany, and stop a plan to allow an oil heating plant at the port.

The group claims the state broke its own policies to promote environmental justice for poor and minority communities, like the South End neighborhood near the port.

A letter to Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens from a former DEC official now with New York City-based EarthJustice also pointed to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who this week ordered DEC and other agencies to address safety concerns about Midwestern crude oil being shipped into and through the state on rail cars, barges and ships.

EarthJustice wrote on behalf of numerous elected officials and neighborhood, environmental and civic groups, including the Ezra Prentice Home Tenants Association, which represents residents of an Albany public housing project next to a port storage area for rail tankers cars hauling oil.

EarthJustice attorney Christopher Amato, DEC deputy commissioner for natural resources from 2007 to 2011, said DEC failed twice to follow its own policies when dealing with requests from Global Companies — once in 2011 when it allowed the company to double the amount of crude oil being brought in on rail cars to 1.8 billion gallons annually, and again last year when the company applied to build a facility to heat crude oil to make it easier to pump out of rail cars before it is shipped downriver on barges.

In both cases, DEC found the projects would have no negative impact on the environment, and accepted the company's claim that it did not have to meet DEC environmental justice policies aimed at informing communities about projects prior to approval.

"All of this has occurred without the thorough environmental review required by state law, and without any attempt to engage the residential communities that are bearing the brunt of this unprecendented industrial activity," Amato wrote.

In his letter to Martens, which also went to Cuomo and his environmental secretary, Basil Seggos, Amato asked that DEC:

Rescind its November 2012 approval for Global's doubled oil shipments, which the company claimed to DEC could be done without increasing rail shipments, something that Amato wrote "defies credibility" given an increasing number of rail tankers now observable at the port and elsewhere including "through the heart of downtown Albany and right past DEC headquarters."

Require the company to file a full-blown environmental impact statement on its oil terminal operations.

Suspend the DEC review of an application by Global to build a crude oil heating plant at the port that Amato said could be used to process imported Canadian tar sands oil, which thickens in cold weather, making it difficult to pump.

Require the company to meet a decade-old DEC policy by creating a plan to inform neighborhood residents about its plans.

"One of the most disturbing aspects of this," said Amato, "is that the community bearing the brunt of this heavy industrial activity has had no say in the process."

Dozens of oil tankers are stored on sidings next to the Ezra Prentice Homes, a public housing project off South Pearl Street with several hundred residents.

"I think when you look at this community, they were more than likely viewed as the community of least resistance. People there living 25 feet from the railroad tracks," said city Common Council President Carolyn McLaughlin, who also was part of Amato's letter to DEC.

In maintaining that Global did not have to meet environmental justice standards for its projects, the company told DEC that the oil shipments posed no threat to nearby residents, and instead, would "likely result in environmental benefits for residents in the areas of concern."

DEC spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said Global has "agreed to implement a public outreach plan to engage the environmental justice community and residents surrounding Global's facility."

She also said DEC extended the public comment period on the company's crude heating plant until April 2 and will hold an informational meeting Feb. 12 at Giffen Elementary School.

Officials from Global Companies, based in Waltham, Mass., did not respond to a call seeking comment.

As the U.S. extracts more and more oil from the Bakken fields in North Dakota, there is more oil than pipelines can handle, so rail shipments heading East to relieve the backlog are skyrocketing. Oil trains can be more than a mile long and contain more than 100 cars carrying millions of gallons of highly flammable oil.